Former Chief of the South African Police, General Johan van der Merwe, denies allegations that the police and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) jointly planned the attack on the African National Congress (ANC) Headquarters on March 28 last year. The attack took place during a march of Zulu loyalists' protesting against the following months national elections. The allegation is made by President Mandela en route from Japan to South Korea, who says that the police failure to take adequate precautions to prevent loss of life during the march '...lends credibility to the perception that there was a plot between the IFP and the police.' The investigation into the attack has been marred by accusations of cover ups on the part of the ANC.
July 7
The Constitutional Assembly denies reports that it ignored repeated requests from the Conference of Editors for an oral hearing on freedom of expression. Committee technical advisor John Dugard states: 'On the concern that the Theme Committee has completed its report without having given a hearing to the editors and without a full public debate, we would like to record that theme committee reports are compiled without any debate whatsoever. Theme committee reports were merely a summary of views submitted by individuals and organisations. Debate...starts at the constitutional committee...public debate on the new constitution has not yet begun.'
July 9
Deputy President FW De Klerk denies that he or the previous government tried to suppress a Goldstone Commission report linking senior police officers and the former Minister of Law and Order, Adriaan Vlok, 'to murder and other dirty tricks'. He asserts that the report was not meant for publication, and that it had been compiled for an international investigative team just before the 1994 elections. According to De Klerk: 'Not publishing the report is...not irregular. In fact, publication of it would have prejudiced the work of the investigative team and the legal process. Any insinuation, therefore, that there was an attempt to cover up the facts is unfounded and unfair.'
July 14
The Mail & Guardian reveals that, according to documents given to them, senior police officers approved 'dirty tricks' operations against the African National Congress, and South African Communist Party and the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU) in the run up to the elections. This casts questions over the extent to which former President FW De Klerk (now Deputy President) knew about these activities, who has steadfastly maintained that they were undertaken by 'rogue elements' within the security forces, bent on undermining negotiations.
The Department of Education launches an inquiry into the attempts to frustrate the adoption of a revised history syllabus in South African schools. The syllabus - which was dominated by Afrikaner nationalist bias - was investigated by a curriculum subcommittee set up by the National Education and Training Forum (NETF), and substantial changes were proposed. The inquiry will focus on the activities of the secretary - an official from the old department of education - who allegedly misrepresented the committee's recommendations by including 'only 5 to 10% of the proposed changes' , with the result that hardly any of the proposed changes were included in the amended syllabus approved by the Ministry of Education. The syllabus for Standards 8 to 10 - which were supposed to be implemented in schools this year - will now be available only later on in the year.
July 17
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) announces that they have decided to support complaints by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and the subscriber channel M-NET that South African broadcasters were not invited to bid for the television rights of provincial and test series rugby events between South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. They are objecting to the deal between the South African Rugby Football Union and News Corporation - owned by New Zealand media magnate Kerry Packer - to give the latter exclusive broadcast rights for major rugby events for the next ten years. The NAB also objects to the 'secret manner' in which the deal was negotiated, and notes that the fact that the deal was concluded with a foreign media owner bodes ill for local broadcasting.
July 19
President Nelson Mandela signs into law legislation to establish a Truth Commission, after many months of wrangling and controversy. President Mandela acknowledges that Non-Governmental Organisations have been calling for Commissioners to be appointed on the basis of their suitability, and not as a result of 'political horse-trading'.
July 21
In its final report, the Cameron Commission of Inquiry into irregularities in arms trading finds that a senior ARMSCOR official lied to Defence Minister Joe Modise about a 1993 arms shipment distributed in Yemen. The official, Peet Smith, also neglected to inform the Minister that a shipment of arms destined for the Lebanese Christian Militia may have been destined for Croatia, in flagrant violation on arms trade with the country. The report also finds that arms were sent to both sides in the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Yemen. In its conclusion, the Commission recommends the dismissal of three ARMSCOR officials guilty of duplicity, including Smith. It criticises the former government for showing irresponsibility and insensitivity in the selling of arms, and recommends the changing of the ARMSCOR Act to separate the obvious, inappropriate responsibilities of ARMSCOR to market arms on the one hand and to control and regulate arms exports on the other, noting that this confusion of roles is a breeding ground for lies and corruption.
July 25
The Director of Publications, Dr. Braam Coetzee, admits that the Directorate regularly lodged their own complaints against girlie magazines instead of acting on complaints from the public, but states that they stopped this practice last year as they found it 'unjust' . Dr. Coetzee notes that it has been his 'prime responsibility' to personally alert the Attorney-General to the sale of undesirable' material at the Nice and Naughty sex shop in Cape Town. He notes that he agrees with the recommendations of the Task Group set up by Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi to bring the Publications Act of 1974 into line with the Interim Constitution, but notes that until the Act is promulgated, the Directorate is obliged to implement the old Act. Under this Act, the Directorate is allowed to submit its own complaints.
July 26
South African police announce that they are investigating a South African link to a British-based international child pornography link operating on the worldwide electronic network INTERNET. British police have so far arrested nine people in central England in connection with the link, and investigations are taking place in three other countries.
July 27
The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) announces that it is to investigate charges under the Interim Constitution against two Johannesburg video shop attendants for allegedly calling its Secretary general, Maxwell Nemadzivhanani, a 'kaffir' . The attendants refused to hire him a video, and one attendant allegedly stated 'as a kaffir you must appreciate the fact that kaffirs are untrustworthy and therefore cannot be accommodated'.